Clearer picture emerging of dinosaurs’ last days

Slow march to extinction and sudden asteroid impact doomed dinos

SURVIVAL SECRET Some birdlike dinosaurs seemed to thrive until their big extinction 66 million years ago. Toothed maniraptorans (one in flight) died out suddenly. But their beaked relatives (one in log), the ancestors of modern birds, may have survived by eating seeds.

Danielle Dufault

Neither a giant asteroid nor a gradual die out can take full blame for dinosaurs’ demise.

At first glance, the two studies seem to conflict, but “they can coexist,” says paleontologist Michael Benton, who coauthored the PNAS paper. Both studies add to what has become an increasingly intricate picture of dinosaurs’ final days.

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